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Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but an Axios article said the sale price is "well below" $20 million. In addition to Tumblr, Automattic will "take on about 200 staffers" from Verizon, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Verizon-imposed porn ban will stay in place at Tumblr after the deal is completed, the Journal wrote.

It's not clear when the deal will be completed. The companies' announcement said the deal is "subject to customary closing conditions."

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"Tumblr is one of the Web's most iconic brands," Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg said in the announcement. "It is an essential venue to share new ideas, cultures, and experiences, helping millions create and build communities around their shared interests. We are excited to add it to our lineup, which already includes WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Jetpack, Simplenote, Longreads, and more."

Verizon Media CEO Guru Gowrappan called Automattic "the perfect partner" for Tumblr, saying that the buyer's "expertise and track record will unlock new and exciting possibilities for Tumblr and its users." WordPress.com is a blogging and website-building platform based on the open source WordPress software.

Verizon's moves into the media business haven't gone so well. In January, Verizon laid off 7% of the 11,385 employees in its media division, which includes Yahoo and AOL. That came weeks after Verizon told the Securities and Exchange Commission that its media business had "lower-than-expected revenues and earnings" and "lower-than-expected benefits from the integration of the Yahoo Inc. and AOL Inc. businesses."

In May this year, after Verizon started seeking buyers for Tumblr, Pornhub said it wanted to buy Tumblr and end the site's Verizon-imposed porn ban. Automattic will reportedly keep the ban in place.

"Mr. Mullenweg said his company intends to maintain the existing policy that bans adult content," today's Journal article said. "He said he has long been a Tumblr user and sees the site as complementary to WordPress.com. 'It's just fun,' he said of Tumblr. 'We're not going to change any of that.'"

Mullenweg issued a statement about the acquisition in a Tumblr post. "When the possibility to join forces became concrete, it felt like a once-in-a-generation opportunity to have two beloved platforms work alongside each other to build a better, more open, more inclusive—and, frankly, more fun Web. I knew we had to do it," he wrote.

As for Tumblr's underlying technology, Mullenweg wrote that "there are some good opportunities to standardize on the Open Source WordPress tech stack, but the front-end user experience on Tumblr will evolve on its own path."

91 Reader Comments

Dang. I'm fairly convinced that Pornhub's user-friendly, forward-thinking corporate culture would've worked well for Tumblr. Not so sure the same is true for Automattic, which owns essentially a competing product in Wordpress...

To answer what I assume will be a common question "Mr. Mullenweg said his company intends to maintain the existing policy that bans adult content. He said he has long been a Tumblr user and sees the site as complementary to WordPress.com. “It’s just fun,” he said of Tumblr. “We’re not going to change any of that.”'

To answer what I assume will be a common question "Mr. Mullenweg said his company intends to maintain the existing policy that bans adult content. He said he has long been a Tumblr user and sees the site as complementary to WordPress.com. “It’s just fun,” he said of Tumblr. “We’re not going to change any of that.”'

I somehow missed that in the WSJ story, thanks. I'll update our piece.

It's as if Verizon shot themselves in the dick when they imposed that porn ban. Pretty much everyone called it the minute they did so too.

The porn ban was an attempt to sell.more valuable ads on Tumblr. Tumblr always had weird and low-value ads, because Ford and Coke aren't gonna buy ad space on a site with fisting and piss fetish content.

To answer what I assume will be a common question "Mr. Mullenweg said his company intends to maintain the existing policy that bans adult content. He said he has long been a Tumblr user and sees the site as complementary to WordPress.com. “It’s just fun,” he said of Tumblr. “We’re not going to change any of that.”'

Re the porn ban: Porn is also "banned" on DeviantArt, and that policy has accomplished nothing whatsoever. Every now and then they make a token effort to crack down on the really egregious accounts, but it's still got a ton of porn.*

Is there any evidence that Tumblr is having greater success with their ban?

* IIRC the official line is that much of this content is allowed because "it's not softcore porn, it's artistic nude." But I doubt anyone actually believes that.

Not even a single throwaway line to say what Tumblr is. What is it? An image sharing site (as per the porn discussion) or is it a blogging site? I realize there's a certain level of assumed knowledge, but eve articles on Facebook will describe them as a social media company at least once.

Re the porn ban: Porn is also "banned" on DeviantArt, and that policy has accomplished nothing whatsoever. Every now and then they make a token effort to crack down on the really egregious accounts, but it's still got a ton of porn.*

Is there any evidence that Tumblr is having greater success with their ban?

* IIRC the official line is that much of this content is allowed because "it's not softcore porn, it's artistic nude." But I doubt anyone actually believes that.

Since ARS doesn't have an anonymous coward option I'll just say yes, it's been largely effective. I'm sure it's not 100% but there's a lot of folks who have moved on to more hospitable corners of the internet.

Not even a single throwaway line to say what Tumblr is. What is it? An image sharing site (as per the porn discussion) or is it a blogging site?

Do you need the article to tell you what Google is, too?

I lost interest in the entire article long before the end. My post wasn't actually a plea for someone to describe it for me. I was simply pointing out what an uninformed reader might guess by context. My post was more to decry the lack of a simple descriptive phrase about the company that's the main focus of the damned article.

Not even a single throwaway line to say what Tumblr is. What is it? An image sharing site (as per the porn discussion) or is it a blogging site?

Do you need the article to tell you what Google is, too?

Alphabet is worth about a 850 billion dollars. Tumble is apparebtly worth about $1B.

Google is the #1 most visited site on the web. Tumblr isn't in the top 50. But other than that, that's an excellent comparison.

If the article were about xnxx do you think the author would have noted what type of content is found there? It's in the top 10 of web traffic. Tumblr might be really important to you. But it's a nothing on the web. As is pbvious by the fact that Verizon owned it.

Automattic should keep Tumblr's content policies as-is and work to purge the spam and bots and make the site more usable for the people who've stuck around for all this time, and for potential new users. Artists that draw 2D porn or create 3DCG porn have several sites they can use right now, from Newgrounds to FurAffinity to Weasyl and more, and they all have more intuitive functions that make them more useful as sites to catalogue art than Tumblr. Although, the reblog and sharing functionality of Tumblr was great, and it'd be cool to see some brand new art site get created that combines proper art gallery functionality with the sorts of social and sharing aspects you can find on Tumblr.

Lastly, SESTA/FOSTA needs to be repealed, and sex workers/performers need laws that protect them put on the books.

Not even a single throwaway line to say what Tumblr is. What is it? An image sharing site (as per the porn discussion) or is it a blogging site?

Do you need the article to tell you what Google is, too?

I lost interest in the entire article long before the end. My post wasn't actually a plea for someone to describe it for me. I was simply pointing out what an uninformed reader might guess by context. My post was more to decry the lack of a simple descriptive phrase about the company that's the main focus of the damned article.

Dude, you've been here long enough to know that if you don't Google it first and answer the basic stuff, asking THAT kind of question in THIS crowd is like slitting your wrists and throwing yourself into a tank full of hungry sharks.

I'm still looking for my left kidney when I last did that. So take your bites, stitch the parts back together and remember, don't feed the sharks. Look it up first.

MUCH less painful that way.

As for the story, I use neither Wordpress nor Tumblr, so don't really have any dogs at this show. From the article, I gleaned that Tumbler is expected to continue "as is", which may, or more likely may not work out in the long run for them.

My take is that if it's working out, you don't sell it off. That means it's probably not working out - at least not as a Verizon property. I have to wonder how well it was doing under Yahoo, when Yahoo had major privacy issues.

Maybe with WordPress taking ownership it can find a nice, new "fun" niche and be supported by WordPress revenue. Because I'm relatively certain it can't make it on its own with just "fun" as a motto if "fun" doesn't include everything consensually "fun" for most people.